Bald eagles fly 35 miles per hour. When they "dive" through the air to catch the prey, they can reach 100 miles per hour.

They eat fish, other birds, muskrats and turtles. Hooked beak helps them tear apart their prey.

Most eagles are silent, except during the breeding season. But bald eagles are famous for their harsh, cackling call, which the birds use throughout the year.

Bald eagles mate for life, but when one dies, the survivor will not hesitate to accept a new mate. During breeding season, both birds protect the nest territory from other eagles and predators.

Their wingspan ranges from 5.5 to 7.5 feet.

Bald eagles are monogamous but solitary animals, they spend winters and migrations alone.

Bald eagles makes a large nest high in a sturdy tree, or sometimes on the ground if no tree is around.

They come back to their nest year after year, adding more twigs, grass, moss, feathers, and branches to the original nest until it becomes huge.

Adult eagles are 3 feet tall and weigh up to 9 pounds. Females are larger than males.

The largest bald eagle nest on record was 3 meters (9.5 feet) wide and 6 meters (20 feet) high. It weighed more than 2 tons.

When the nest is to the eagles’ liking, the female lays 1 to 3 eggs. Both male and female take turns keeping the eggs warm day and night until they hatch.

Bald eagle females lay their eggs several days apart, once a year.

The first eaglet (chick) to hatch gets an advantage over its younger siblings, since it has had several days to grow.

It is not uncommon for the older eaglet to kill the smaller one, especially if the older is a female, as females are consistently larger than males.

Both parents help care for the eaglets. The mother does most of the chick-sitting, and the father provides the food for the family.

Newly hatched, eaglets are soft, grayish-white down covers their small bodies, their wobbly legs are too weak to hold their weight, and their eyes are partially closed eyes, limiting vision. Their only protection is their parents.

They have around 7000 feathers. They are light, but strong.

Eagles feed their young by shredding pieces of meat from their prey with their beaks.

By 3 weeks they are 30 centimeters (1 foot) high and their feet and beaks are very nearly adult size.

At 6 weeks, the eaglets are very nearly as large as their parents.

They turn dark brown just before they leave the nest at about 12 weeks old.

Their head and neck feathers don’t turn white until they are mature.

Native Americans consider the bald eagle and the golden eagle to be sacred.

Bald eagles are not bald at all. Eagle looks "bald" because white feathers on the head are in contrast with dark brown feathers on the rest of the body.

These graceful birds have been the national symbol of the United States since 1782.

Bald eagles were on the brink of extinction because of hunting and pollution. But laws created almost 40 years ago have helped protect them, and they’ve made a comeback.

In 2007, the bald eagle was removed from endangered and threatened species list kept by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.